April's thoughts about writing, life, and junk food

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Books

This year has been kind of a blur. I turned in one book January 31st. I turned in a second book April 22nd. I do not recommend this schedule.

During this time, my husband took a new author photo (in a cemetery, which Ithink lends a certain quality).

I also went to New Orleans for a brief vacation that had originally been planned when I thought my books would be done.

Last week, I spent a week in Texas, first doing author visits and then attending IRA. In the evenings I would come back to my hotel room and right for up to six hours while eating food I had bought at a Super Target. (Oh, the glamorous life of an author!)

Even so, I did have a great time - the only thing that wasn't fun was having a water bottle leak onmy

hotel bed, which caused my iPhoneto become more like an iAquarium.

At IRA, I got to meet literacy coach Joy Olenick from Iowa, who even brought along a poster her students had made. A few weeks ago, Joy sent me this note: "Thank you for writing Girl,Stolen! I am a literacy coach at a middle school in Council Bluffs, IA. This book has ignited a love for literacy in several students and teachers in my building. I have witnessed students hanging in the classroom after the bell to read just a few more sentences before having to move on to the next class. This week I have overheard students excitedly sharing which page number they were on and searching for others as far as they were in the text so that they could talk about what had just happened! One student, knowing that I had read the novel this summer, mouthed to me "Mrs Olenick page 183 O-M-G!!" To which I whispered back "Keep reading! It gets even better!!!" We now have a waiting list of students who want to read Girl, Stolen next in their literature discussion group. A teacher who is retiring this year thanked me for sharing the book with her and endorses it to her students as the best book she has read in her career as a Language Arts teacher."

Then right after I got home I saw a Tweet about Girl, Stolen. It had won a the Teen Choice award from South Dakota. That's the third state award for a book a lot of folks passed on.

I took this week off from writing, but come Monday I'm back in the saddle.